Vehicular parking is usually subjected to rules and regulations such as absolute prohibitions in areas in which no parking is permitted, and conditional prohibitions such as permit-only parking. Time-limited parking regulations, whether free or metered/ticketed, are also common on public roadways.
Enforcement of vehicular parking regulations can be the responsibility of either private or public agencies. Such enforcement is costly and time consuming. Typical enforcement involves a parking inspector manually inspecting all of the restricted spaces periodically, regardless of whether vehicles are actually present. Further, to identify a violation in a free time-limited zone requires that the parking inspector inspect the violating car at least twice, once to establish a time of arrival of the car (for example by chalking the tire of the car), and a second time once the permitted time period for parking has elapsed. Even in paid metered zones, such manual enforcement is inefficient as the parking inspector may fail to note an expired meter or ticket before the violating car departs, reducing the deterrent to infringers and denying fines revenue to the relevant body. It has been estimated that only 1 in 25 parking violations are identified by manual enforcement. Enforcement is made even more difficult when the spaces are distributed over a large area, such as a city block or a large, multi-level parking garage. Manual enforcement is also unable to provide historical data of parking usage, and such data is becoming of increasing importance to the implementation of parking supply and regulation.
Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or the like which has been included in the present specification is solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is not to be taken as an admission that any or all of these matters form part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention as it existed before the priority date of each claim of this application.
Throughout this specification the word “comprise”, or variations such as “comprises” or “comprising”, will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps.